“A reasonable vocabulary of well-chosen words provides us with shadings of meaning and enables us to speak finely instead of coarsely…Now, note the difference in the four-word sentences: “John looked at Mary”; “John glanced at Mary”; “John gazed at Mary”; “John glared at Mary.” A true definition of style is, “Proper words in proper places with thoughts in proper order.” …Words should be kind and gentle or firm and bold, according to the need of the moment. Words which betray are unkind and words which befuddle are frustrating…Every person should say what he means, speaking clearly and distinctly. The”
This is Earth, our amazing home. The only planet in the solar system with the ability to harbor life (that we know of).
This is the distance between our awesome planet and the moon.
Doesn’t look that far does it? How about if I told you that you could fit EVERY planet in our solar system neatly in that distance.
Speaking of the other planets in our solar system, this is them & this is where our amazing planet resides.
The moon’s our cute little companion. This is the United States compared to it.
The planets in the solar system are so cool. This is what North America looks like in comparison to Jupiter.
Speaking of Jupiter and the moon, this is what it would look like if Jupiter was in the place of the moon. (The white dot is our moon).
Earth compared to Saturn (well 6 Earths…)
Ever wonder about what Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn? Well wonder no more..
Amazing right? Want to see something cooler? Here is the Earth compared to our Sun.
Here’s what we look like from the moon
And from Mars
From Saturn
From Neptune…
Here is what the Sun looks like from Mars
Remember what Carl Sagan said? There are more stars in space than grains of sand on every beach in the Earth.
That’s a lot right? That only means there are stars way larger than our Sun..like this one for example:
And there are stars bigger than that….
Stars are huge, but the galaxy is even bigger. If you shrunk the Sun down to the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way Galaxy would be the size of the United States.
This is where the Earth is in our huge galaxy
You know all the stars we see in the sky? These are the ones we only ever see (this isn’t our galaxy but its very similar)
The Milky Way is so big that the last time the Earth was in this exact position in the galaxy, the dinosaurs were here
Even though our galaxy is huge, there are galaxies that are even bigger…
This picture from Hubble shows thousands of thousands of thousands of galaxies that each have their own stars with their own planets…
Here is one of the galaxies in that picture. It is 10 BILLION light years away. When we look at it, we are looking 10 BILLION YEARS BACK IN TIME
And just to keep this in mind, this is a very small portion of the sky that was believed to be empty…
Everything is relative.
Next time you’re stressed out or worried about something, stop and take a step back. Look up at the sky and think about all of the things that are out there. All the stars being born, the stars dying, galaxies colliding.
We live in such an amazing universe, and we are only an extremely tiny part of it.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Happy birthday J.R.R. Tolkien! (January 3 1892 – September 2 1973) illustration by Audrey Benjaminsen
An illustration of the constellations Monoceros and Canis Minor from
The
beauty of the heavens : a pictorial display of the astronomical
phenomena of the universe by Charles Blunt.
The full text with many other illustrations is available here.
Need an up-to-date periodic table for #IYPT2019? This one includes:
⚖️ Atomic masses
🌡️ Melting/boiling points
⚛️ Atomic radii
⚡ Ionisation energies
…and more! Download it here: http://bit.ly/2BXyRqzhttp://bit.ly/2R1DU3A
Donna Tobias - the first woman to graduate from the US Navy’s Deep Sea Diving School in 1975.
Brave women of the Red Cross hitting the beach at Normandy.
Dottie Kamenshek was called the best player in women’s baseball and was once recruited to play for a men’s professional team.
Kate Warne - Private Detective. Born in New York City, almost nothing is known of her prior to 1856 when, as a young widow, she answered an employment advertisement placed by Alan Pinkerton. She was one of four new agents the Pinkerton Detective Agency hired that year and proved to be a natural, taking to undercover work easily. She had taken part in embezzlement and railroad security cases when in 1861 the Pinkertons developed the first lead about an anti-Lincoln conspiracy.
Catherine Leroy, female photographer in Vietnam.
The three women pictured in this incredible photograph from 1885 – Anandibai Joshi of India, Keiko Okami of Japan, and Sabat Islambouli of Syria – each became the first licensed female doctors in their respective countries. The three were students at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania; one of the only places in the world at the time where women could study medicine.
Female Samurai Warrior - Onno-Bugeisha - Female warrior belonging to the Japanese upper class. Many women engaged in battle, commonly alongside samurai men. They were members of the bushi (samurai) class in feudal Japan and were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honour in times of war.
One of the most feared of all London street gangs from the late 1880’s was a group of female toughs known as the Clockwork Oranges. They woulde later inspire Anthony burgess’ most notorious novel. Their main Rivals were the All-female “the Forty Elephants” gang.
Maureen Dunlop de Popp, Pioneering female pilot who flew Spitfires during Second World War. She joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1942 and became one of a small group of female pilots who were trained to fly 38 types of aircraft.
In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29.
“What are you doing here?” “I uh… I came to… rescue you.” “Rescue me? A commoner?” "Actually, I came to beg your forgiveness. I offered you the world and at the first test of honor, I betrayed your trust. Please, Danielle…” "Say it again.” "I’m sorry.” "No. The part where you said my name.” "Danielle.”
InSight: Sol 22 was seismometer deployment day, and it looks like round 1 of the robo-claw game went as planned. Once they’re sure the seismometer’s in a good location, they’ll put the wind shield over it (it’s the white curved thing behind the seismometer in a few of the photos), and after that it’ll be time to deploy the heat probe and let it start digging.
man the crazy thing about babies is that like, some people would think that reading a baby a book about farm animals is teaching them about farm animals, but really it’s teaching them about the concept of a book and how there’s new information on each page of a single object, but really, beyond that,it’s teaching them how language works, and beyond that it’s really actually teaching them about human interaction, and really really it’s them learning about existing in a three-dimensional space and how they can navigate that space, but actually, above all it is teaching them that mama loves them.
Yes! Reindeer are real mammals. In fact, reindeer are the same species as caribou (Rangifer tarandus). The species is widespread throughout northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, the wild subspecies are called “caribou.” In Eurasia, both wild and domesticated animals are called reindeer.
The First Nations People of Canada have depended upon caribou in the same way that tribes of the North American plains depended upon the bison – for meat, and as a source of clothing and various household goods cleverly derived from the animal’s bones, tendons, horns, and fur. However, there was never an attempt to domesticate the animals in North America. In parts of Eurasia, people began to domesticate reindeer about 2,000 years ago. The domesticated animals have evolved to be shorter and stockier than the wild animals. North American subspecies of caribou by contrast, are about as large an elk. There are several subspecies found in Canada, such as the barren-ground caribou living in the tundra, which is known to migrate as much as 800 miles from one seasonal feeding ground to another. At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, visitors can observe the barren-ground caribou and the mountain caribou in dioramas that show their natural habitats in the Hall of North American Wildlife. There is additional information about caribou in Polar World: Wykoff Hall of Arctic Life.
Barren-ground caribou in snow, Hall of North American Wildlife
Mountain caribou, Hall of North American Wildlife
The domesticated reindeer of Eurasia are herded by people living in Arctic regions. These reindeer provide food, clothing, and even shelter for the people with whom their lives are intertwined. Clement Moore’s famous story, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ was written in 1837 at a time when the people of Lapland, in northern Finland, would have been using reindeer to draw large sleighs or sledges, just as other people might use horses.
Unlike other members of the deer family, both male and female caribou and/or reindeer have antlers during part of the year. Large bucks begin developing antlers in March. The antlers of adult males may reach lengths of three to four feet and will be dropped by early November. Young males develop much smaller racks and will not lose their antlers until the following February. The antlers of adult females are of similar size to those of young males. A doe will begin to develop her antlers in June and carry them until the following April or May. Timing of antler loss in females usually coincides with the birth of their young. Based on this timing, it is clear that Santa’s reindeer must either be young males or adult females rather than adult males, because the larger males do not have antlers by Christmas time!
Reindeer can move at different speeds from the most common slow trot to a rapid gallop that can reach speeds of up to forty-nine miles per hour over short bursts. A unique characteristic of this animal is a clicking sound that is made by tendons moving over bones in the feet. They are excellent swimmers but have never been known to fly.
Suzanne B. McLaren is the Collection Manager in the Section of Mammals and Chair of Collections for Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She lives on the Northside with her husband Andy. Museum employees are encouraged to share their unique experiences from working at the museum.
